Gavrilova reaches Hong Kong tennis final

Sixth-seeded Pavlyuchenkova is chasing her third WTA singles title this year and faces Daria Gavrilova of Australia in the final.

Epa06267524 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russian Federation in action against Daria Gavrilova of Australia during their WTA Hong Kong Open final match in Hong Kong, China, 15 October 2017.

Gavrilova finished in 82 minutes, breaking Brady six times.

"(It was) very tough as a lot of wind and it was not easy to serve", said Pavlyuchenkova.

"I'm just happy to finally finish this match in brutal conditions", said Pavlyuchenkova after being presented with the trophy. "But it's the final day, so I knew there is just one match today, so I gave everything I had out there".

Gavrilova set up three set points with an ace and took the opening set on her second as 70th-ranked Brady failed to make an impression.

Osaka ousted Venus Williams but couldn't match the 21st-ranked Pavlyuchenkova from the baseline, and served nine double faults. "I just made it more clear in my head where I was going to hit the second serve, actually making a smaller target than just hitting it anywhere". "Right now, I'm really, really exhausted", exclaimed Pavlyuchenkova, after the match.

Gavrilova finished the contest with the shot of the day, a sliced backhand dropshot victor from the baseline on match point.

There was a sense of deja vu when Pavlyuchenkova also won the first three games of the second set and although seventh seed Gavrilova got back on serve at 3-2, the Russian broke for a second time in the set and went on to level the match. Tomorrow will be a different match as there it was indoors and she seems in really good shape here.